Disney: Day 2 Magic Kingdom

We headed to the Magic Kingdom on Day 2 of our trip. We took the monorail first thing and got to the park in time for the opening show. Once in the park we made our way to Fantasy Land. Our first stop was Dumbo, followed by Barnstormer, Tomorrowland Speedway, Tea Cups, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We rode Dumbo several times in a row as well as Barnstormer. I had to sit out of Barnstormer due to baby but I was surprised that the kids liked it so much and were willing to do multiple times. The lines were non existent in the mornings so we took advantage where we could. The only wait we had was at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but we only had to wait about 25 minutes. We had some time to spare before our FP for Peter Pan so we enjoyed the Carousel and Mickey's PhilharMagic. Honestly, one of our favorite attractions was the PhilharMagic show. This show doesn't get a lot of lip service and its always a short wait but I found it to be very well done and enjoyable. The kids LOVED it! It also was a great break to cool down.

We headed to Peter Pan. This attraction is always a LONG wait so a FP was necessary. I remember this ride well from my childhood and its still the same. We all enjoyed it but I found that for Ellington's age it was too dark and the scenery was hard for them to see so I don't think she really was able to get the full effect so that was a bummer.

After Peter Pan, we headed to lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. The food at Disney is really nothing to write home about. Its really the same type of food at each venue. Basically chicken fingers, burgers, pizza, etc. However, we weren't there for the food, we were there for the MAGIC!!!!
 
We had a fast pass for Buzz Lightyear after lunch, so we headed over to Tomorrow Land . This ride was really fun and of course, Holt loved it because of its competitive game feature. He really liked the rides that were more interactive. My competitive spirit came out too. My mom and Ellington were on one team and I was on the other. I didn't hold back people!

It was important to me that Chad get to experience everything that Disney had to offer since it was his first trip too. Since I was unable to do the "big" rides and our children were too I sent Chad off by himself to take advantage of the single rider line so he could ride the staples at Disney. After Buzz Lightyear, my mom, Holt, Ellington, and myself headed to the Monster Laugh Floor. Holt LOVES Monsters Inc and Ellington reminds me of "Boo." The show was cute and good way to wind down before we headed back to the hotel for a nap.  Chad went to Space Mountain while we were at the Laugh Floor. I love this ride and I knew Chad would enjoy it too.

After we recharged our batteries, we went back to the MK. Chad and Holt had a FP for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We took advantage of rider switch so my mom could ride it with Holt. I wasn't sure how Holt would react to the ride but he liked it and was willing to go again with my mom. While Chad and Holt rode the Mine Train, my mom and I took Ellington to meet Aurora and Cinderella with a FP. I thought Ellington would love getting to the meet the Princesses (by the end of the trip she couldn't get enough) but she didn't react the way I thought she would. She was overwhelmed and started crying as soon as Cinderella walked up to talk to her. I tried to calm her but she just wasn't having it. I held her during both meetings with Cinderella and Aurora. As you can see below she was all tears. In hindsight I should have scheduled this meeting towards the end of the trip when she had more time to acclimate to the environment but it is what it is.

We then headed to dinner at Crystal Palace. Our reservations were at 6:15 and we still had to wait about 20 minutes. My kids don't watch a lot of Winnie the Pooh things but Holt has a book with the characters in it so they still know who they are. Holt did great with the characters and Ellington started to warm up at this point. She would yell the character's name when she saw them heading towards our table. In fact, she warmed up enough to participate in the parade. I'm sure it helped that Holt was right by her side but she marched nonetheless! Surprisingly this was our longest dinner while at Disney. We were there for a little over an hour. It just took the characters a little longer to make their rounds at this joint compared to others. I actually didn't mind the time. Our seat was right by the window in front of the castle so we got to watch the Cinderella's Castle changing from day to night and the lights coming on.

After dinner, we went back to do Buzz Lightyear with another FP that I was able to get after we used all 3 of our original FPs. We then went to do Astro Orbiter which according to my Disney app was only a 15 mintue wait. Not So Much...we waited WAAY longer than 15 minutes. In fact, we were there when the light show started at the castle. It was kind of nice getting to be so high up while that was going on but we booked it out of the park after the ride because we knew we would get caught in the firework traffic if we didn't race to the monorail. We planned only to see fireworks on Thursday night at MK so our goal was to be out of the park prior to those on other nights so we could beat the crowds and get into bed.